I can sympathize with the people who say that religion forces them to adopt certain behaviors. Even though I haven't lived it, I have heard way too many stories about where people were completely forbidden to go to different places, or perform different body alterations, because it is temptation from the inherently evil side.

The biggest problem I realized is that most religious teachings are actually very humane, but people bend and twist it to meet their own ends. When that happens, then big barriers start being placed on what you can and can't do in regards to religion. These are the conflicts, and eventually people will retaliate against this. As long as we question our decisions in regards to the teachings, we can free ourselves from the past problems and shackles.

I think religion is going to have to be redesigned in the near future, for everyone. The reasoning behind this is that I believe everyone acknowledges religion exists, even if they do not believe in the entities that are portrayed in religion. Also, thanks to the internet, there is beginning to be a better tolerance for the different aspects of religion, and its effects on the world.

Even though there is not much that can be done now, except to observe. The same laws that restrict don't need to be followed in the future. I believe that this trend will continue because the world is slowly (and I mean very slowly) becoming more and more tolerant due to the vast amount of information available to people. (As long as they know where to look )

I think the best advice would be...

"Don't give up on what you believe is right. Attempt to see where your oppressors are coming from so you can have the knowledge to correct what is wrong."

Moving to hedonism (of course, I had to google that) is something I could definitely forsee. With the new generation (at least in America) being significantly less disciplined and more lazy they will just come up with excuses to fit their religion."God wants me to eat this cheeseburger"

I believe that this trend will continue because the world is slowly (and I mean very slowly) becoming more and more tolerant due to the vast amount of information available to people.

As much as I'd like to believe this, I've seen no signs of this yet.

Interestingly, if two people discuss differences of view, in the end they tend to both walk away feeling reinforced in their views.

If anything, we see a world wide en mass conversion to hedonism, losely meaning that pleasure is the overarching goal in life. It might seem an innocent and harmless movement, but it numbs the minds.

That is an interesting way of putting it. Even after this specific post, I can disagree but I can be tolerant of your belief. Being tolerant is actually something I've seen happen on a mass scale, and in my view, it is causing a whole flurry of side effects. Some of these are good and some are bad. I will go over some of the more prevalent ones here.

1) Laziness: Definitely one of the bad side effects of tolerance. People, in general, are having less and less conviction toward completing tasks and goals. Why? I don't think that answer can be definitive. A huge part of me says that people of today are a lot less prone to taking risks due to the fact the reward is not immediate. There is a huge boon on everyone to push them into the mold of society... which in a lot of cases doesn't get people very rich.

2) Diversity: This is one of the good effects. The more people become tolerant, the more freedom people will have with doing what they believe. Freedom induces this push toward happiness. Which, coincidently, has a strong correlation to Hedonism. (Pain and pleasure has a very wide net... sadly, especially if you bring in spiritual, mental, and physical).

I think the point I was trying to make was that us, as a human race, are slowly becoming more aware. This is what is going to cause that shift into being more tolerant. Knowledge is the blade... it'll pierce through ignorance and disbelief easily. Regardless of what we do, the knowledge is out there and it will change our society to be more aware whether we like it or not.

People can disagree, but the chances of someone using force is diminishing... slowly.

Uh... isn't it a little early to demote this thread into another flame war about religion vs. whatever.

I am not expecting anyone to buy into anything. I am just stating an opinion, which is just harmless by definition. If you think my intentions is conversion, then you are grossly mistaken. I am being quite honest with myself when I say that we do not have a firm grasp on faith. Very hard to argue fact on something that doesn't have anything tangible.

I doubt it's that the world is becoming more tolerant, it's more like the number of "I-don't-give-a-damn-about-religion-let-me-refresh-my-facebook" people are increasing, who don't care about anything in general.

I doubt it's that the world is becoming more tolerant, it's more like the number of "I-don't-give-a-damn-about-religion-let-me-refresh-my-facebook" people are increasing, who don't care about anything in general.

Its not about tolerance anymore, its about indifference. Although I hate Facebook its not fair to name it specifically in this case; its how people behave through the internet in general. You see the same things happening in forums, on twitter, etc. Its not all that hard to understand either to be honest; proper social interaction relies on more than verbal or textual communication, it heavily relies on being able to see hand gestures, facial expressions and posture and hear a tone of voice. All that you lack on the net, so its no surprise that people royally screw up interacting that way.

Long story short: An emoticon does not replace a face, a like is no substitute for a compliment.

Whether that lack of negative reaction is due to apathy or self-restraint, the result still is a net increase in tolerance.

The increased flow of information in the current age does have many drawbacks, but one clear advantage is that it provides exposure to ideas that most people would never come in contact with on their own.

Expose someone to something long enough, and that something becomes mundane, and thus begets indifference, which is the goal of those who propose tolerance: Live and let live.

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